Western Washington U. Students Demand College for Social Justice Indoctrination
Activists accuse college of oppressing 'hxstorically marginalized students,' because correct spelling is a microaggression.
Student activists at Western Washington University—a public university in Bellingham, Washington—have published their demands, which easily trump Oberlin College students' demands in terms of sheer absurdity. WWU students want an entire academic college dedicated to breeding social justice activists, separate residential safe spaces for racial groups, and a student committee charged with policing offensive speech.
It's no exaggeration to say that if students got their way, WWU would essentially become an indoctrination camp. The proposed College of Power and Liberation would teach a very narrow far-left ideology, and the proposed Office for Social Transformation would investigate professors and students who are accused of microaggressions.
For these activists, "microaggression" is clearly a broad term. The list of demands spells the word "history" like this: "hxstory." As I explained in a recent column for The Daily Beast:
The list of demands ends with a lengthy denunciation of WWU's marginalization of "hxstorically oppressed students." The misspelling is intentional: "hxstory," I presume, was judged to be more PC than "history," which is gendered, triggering, and perhaps violent. It's easy for me to laugh at these clumsy attempts to make language obey the dictates of political correctness—but I laugh from a position of relative safety, since I am not a WWU professor.
On the other hand, if a member of campus were to insist on the proper spelling of the word, would he or she (or xe) have to answer to the Committee for Social Transformation?
Full thing here.
WWU President Bruce Shepard told The Bellingham Herald that only the Faculty Senate can propose an entirely new college, and that many of the other demands would violate contracts with university employees, internal policies, and even federal law, according to The College Fix.
The activists countered by alleging that Shepard was further oppressing "hxstorically marginalized students." What a time to be alive.